WASHINGTON, November 12 (RIA Novosti) – Authorities in New York have launched a probe into the state athletic commission’s handling of a punishing boxing match after which Russian fighter Magomed Abdusalamov underwent brain surgery, an official told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
“We have initiated an investigation,” said Bill Reynolds, a spokesman for the New York State Office of the Inspector General, though he declined to give further details about the nature of the probe because it was still ongoing.
Abdusalamov, 32, lost the brutal 10-round fight to Cuban fighter Mike Perez on November 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He left the arena after being cleared by doctors from New York’s state athletic commission but had to be rushed to the emergency room, where a blood clot was discovered in his brain.
The clot was surgically removed, and Abdusalamov was put into a medically induced coma. He suffered a stroke last week and was in critical condition as of Monday, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
Abdusalamov’s manager, Boris Grinberg, complained that the athletic commission’s doctors improperly allowed the fighter to leave the arena following the bout, New York Magazine reported.
Reynolds told RIA Novosti that the investigation was opened Monday after New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales wrote a letter to the state’s inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, asking officials to examine the circumstances surrounding the fight.
“I believe it is critical to determine whether, in fact, the policies and procedures in place to protect the fighters were properly administered,” Perales wrote in the letter, according to the Daily News.
The Daily News cited a source close to the state athletic commission as saying that Abdusalamov had four different doctors examine him after the fight and that he “never complained of anything” being wrong.
Abdusalamov hails from the republic of Dagestan in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region. He captured the Russian super heavyweight amateur championships in 2005 and 2006 and turned professional in 2008. He moved to the United States in 2009.
The loss to Perez was the first of Abdusalamov’s professional career after 18 wins.
